Media release - August 9, 2005
Fishing giant Omega Protein was prevented from vacuuming up tens of thousands of fish from the Chesapeake Bay today when Greenpeace activists dispersed schools of menhaden before the company’s factory fishing boats were able to surround the fish in their nets. Greenpeace is calling for an end to the industrial fishing of menhaden – a species that is important to the health of the Chesapeake Bay and to communities along the East Coast.
Factory fishing giant Omega vacuums massive volumes of menhaden out of the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
Greenpeace activists prevent industrial fishing giant Omega from reaching a large school of menhaden.
"These fish are a public good, not the property of Omega
Protein," said John Hocevar, Greenpeace oceans campaigner. "Omega
Protein's overfishing is killing the Bay. At the same time, the
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which is supposed to
protect the oceans and the livelihoods of coastal communities, is
not doing its job. Do menhaden populations have to collapse before
the Commission takes action?"
Flying banners that read "Factory fishing is overkill," the
activists used inflatable boats to scatter menhaden schools,
thereby preventing Omega Protein from capturing the fish. At the
same time, Greenpeace faxed
a letter to the company's corporate headquarters in Houston,
Texas, critical of Omega Protein's efforts to "maximize its catch
of menhaden regardless of the cost to coastal ecosystems or the
people who depend upon them."
Omega Protein catches more than 70 percent of the menhaden taken
in the United States. Its fishing operations are devastatingly
efficient: after spotter planes find a menhaden school, boats
encircle the school in their nets and literally vacuum the fish out
of the sea. The company's practices are a
prime example of destructive factory fishing and poor fisheries
management throughout the United States.
On August 17, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
(ASMFC) will decide whether to limit menhaden fishing along the
Atlantic coast. As part of its worldwide campaign for healthy
oceans and sustainable fisheries, Greenpeace is calling on the
ASMFC to institute an immediate moratorium on factory fishing of
menhaden.
"My ancestors made their living as watermen and fishermen on the
Chesapeake," said Ginger Cassady, a Greenpeace campaigner whose
family has lived in Gloucester, Va. since the early 1800s. "I
cannot stand by and let a company from Texas steal a resource that
is so vital to the area where my family makes its home."
Called "
the most important fish in the sea," menhaden are the main food
source for many marine creatures, including striped bass, sea birds
and whales. They are also important to the water quality of the
Bay, eating decaying plant matter and removing impurities.
Exp. contact date: 2005-09-09 00:00:00